How are WWE shows written in such a short amount of time?
I can see giant shows of WWE in single week without miss.
Giant meaning 3 hours for RAW, 2 Hours for Smackdown, main events are 1 hour, etc.
How are WWE shows written in such a short amount of time? How is it possible?
Best Answer
A few points:
- A few hours of material a week is easy. It's done all the time. Look at any daily news or comedy show.
- Wrestling has, well, wrestling. And dead time between matches. They do not need a solid 3 hours of material.
- Due to the live aspect, Ad Libbing, and going with the crowd or situation is a must. Not everything needs to be written, even though much is.
- The writer's pool is huge. 25+ normal writers, and they are always hiring. To compare, SNL had half of that in 1988. The Daily Show has 12 normal ones, 17 total.
- They have done this for years, and know exactly how to pace the episode. Raw started out with some tape segments, and a much lower time slot, and slowly expanded to it's 3 hour status.
Courtesy of leaked scripts, here's a standard Simpson's episode, clocking in at 54 pages of mostly speech. Here's a WWE Raw episode's script, 16 pages, only 12 of which are the actual show, and it's mostly stage directions and not speech. They had a video of the episode to compare, and it wasn't word for word:
You'll notice right away, from the moment Wyatt adds a few lines before hitting his scripted words, that there are differences. This is a function of two things.
First, this script was a draft (the third, to be precise). Like any show, Raw goes through a number of rewrites before hitting on the final product. We don't know how many drafts this one eventually went through, but considering how close this one is to what eventually aired, it couldn't have been many.
Second, the scripted speeches are never meant to be read word-for-word. Think of them as talking points. They provide the notes that need to be hit, but wrestlers—especially those as skilled on the mic as Wyatt and Cena—are expected and encouraged to ad-lib, adding their own characters' spins to the promos.
Think Powerpoint Presentation, not a written/rehearsed Speech.
The actual match is pretty much the same. Ad-libbed for the most part, with just the ending predetermined.
They also steal comedy bits. The MLP episode aired March 2011. Cena copied it August 2011:
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How does WWE script?
What IS heavily scripted is the storyline. The wrestlers must weave into their matches the themes and angles that their characters are following. That means that matches aren't random. If it's a romance angle and there's a girl at the ringside, the wrestler has to pine at the dame during the match.Does WWE have writers?
"We have a whole department, a creative writing department. We have more than 20 writers at this particular time," said WWE Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative Paul Levesque (aka legendary WWE superstar "Triple H"). "They come from everywhere.Is WWE scripted or real?
As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE shows are not legitimate contests but entertainment-based performance theater, featuring storyline-driven, scripted, and partially-choreographed matches; however, matches often include moves that can put performers at risk of injury, even death, if not performed ...Is WWE results predetermined?
Wrestling is not necessarily fake, but scripted. The lines are rehearsed. The matches are predetermined. The wrestlers are not really trying to hurt each other, but rather entertain the fans who sell out arena after arena worldwide.\
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